Situation IS getting better:)

[emergRN]

Yay..I'm not a crazy cat lady! 

W

[Brambledog]

That's the best piece of logic I've heard for a long time....

How do dogs and chickens fit into the mix? Do they alter the parameters at all?! 

Lol...

Hugs to all the gang of crazy knees,

Brams 

[Rknees4]

HMMMMMMM...Crazy cat lady?  According to Snowy's calculations I am officially a crazy cat lady.  4people in the house 6cats plus the multitude out side on the step and on the patio. I knew there was something wrong with me but I always thought it was just my knees. Who knew?>

Well folks you know you are getting old when the person knocking you out for surgery is only slightly older than your oldest child..Man and the kid that did my ecg is the same age as my kid.  Man do i feel old today.  The only ones older were my pre-op nurse who had replaced knees and my surgeon who by the way is on holidays this week. So no excuses for a botched job he will be all mellow and rested NOT..
Well looks like I am a go for surgery next week as long as nothing drastic happens between now and then.

Happy knees and toe to all.
Rk4

[emergRN]

Why is it that my knee always seems to magically improve about a week or two before surgery.  What I have done the past two days, I never would have been able to do a week ago.  Today I cleaned all of my hardwood floors on the main floor.  I dusted everything, cleaned the windows that I could reach on the outside, and I ironed a bunch of clothes.  I have no idea why I am doing that, because I will just have to redo it when I get there..lol!  Oh, and I have one bag almost packed.

Now I am second guessing all of this again..then again, the MRI was pretty clear.  Oh well, the tickets are bought now, and are non refundable.  Four more sleeps and I will be in Vancouver.

Tez...yes, the no/low carb thing is very hard.  I don't think I would be able to keep this up for too long!  i am going to have a little cheat either tomorrow night, or Saturday night.  I am going out to our summer place, and going to the beach for a wiener roast.  That will be my supper.  Roasted marshmallows for desert.

Tez, you enjoy all of your upcoming events, and especially your birthday.  I am just a bit freaked out because I am going back to BC with 10 lbs on since November.  I know that it is quite expected to put on weight after a long period of relative immobility.  i was actually talking to one of the girls from work who had an ACLr done several years ago.  She also went to my original surgeon.  She had troubles as well, and she was off for 6 months.  She put on 25 lbs(and she is a good 6" shorter than i am).

Tell you what!  When we are both all recovered and active again, we will be each other's support buddies for weight loss.  You will get your willpower back.  You will know when the time is right.

RK4..Glad you are cleared for surgery.

Well, it appears to be a fairly quiet news day on here.  I must go get some more done...ugh!

W

[Rknees4]

It is funny how that works isn't it W.
This is the first time mine have got worse. Man I hope that what ever is causing the issues is still causing issues a week from now..

Well i must be the crazy cat lady as I type this mine is trying to catch the letters as I type and the 2 baby cats are playing with my toes.. Tika's brother is still in the house as his people can't take him for a bit yet so he remains a fixture wit his orange mustache and extra toes that look like a baseball glove.. We call him Cooper.
Well the humidity finally broke with the rain we are now getting.  It is the coolest it has been since last weekend. Finally a no melt night..

Well one more work day for all those of you out there earning a living then hopefully a fun filled weekend.
Take Care all.
Rk4

[FMRCathelete]

Well I am now peeved with OS as he seems to think a steroid inj is a great idea for me!  Honestly, I have had them before & no effect, knee worse now & I have implants which makes it nearly a contraindication (as if any bacteria there at all they will have a giant party with the steroid present to knock out my immune response).   I hate to flat out argue with him but I absolutely know in my gut it will not help or fix the problem!!!!!!!  ARGHHHHHHH  I really thought he was going to try to help me figure this out & now I just don't know.  On a better note I have his blessing to cancel the 2nd lumbar block.

Dogs do counteract the number of cats, for each dog you can "subtract" a cat.  I too think perfectly ok to be crazy cat lady.  J even says when we get house with land we can have as many as we want!  Rodents be very afraid!

W- Don't back out now, it won't stay good on it's own.  Sounds like you were a busy bee, see how you feel tonight & tomorrow.  Yummy roasted marshmallows -is there any better summertime dessert?  I put on 25 lbs since all this started -yuck!  Have managed to start slowing getting it off, so hard when I never dieted in my life, just worked out harder.  Since that's not an option, here's to smaller portions!  A mentor of mine kept track of antidepressant scripts when the Atkins diet became popular.  Don't remember the numbers, but huge jump in the number of new scripts, so she started asking & many of same people were limiting carbs.  So I am with you, and don't think we should eliminate any one group.

RK4 , or should I say CCL?  - Good you are cleared for surgery and you are not old.  Silly, don't you remember being "too young" for TKR?  I am sorry for asking, but what are they doing?  I tried to find in posts but could not find.  Please send some cool air my way!  I want to come over & play with the kitties!!!!  I love kitties with boxing gloves!

Tez, sorry you were reading at stupid o' clock.  I'm sure no one will be good enough for Conor, esp not at first.  My husband is the only spouse my Mom thinks good enough for one of her kids.  Took nearly 17 years for her to reach that conclusion (and us surviving long distance relationship x3 years and then living with them for a bit).  Now she just adores him, and he even calls my parents out of the blue on his own to check in with them.  Maybe Conor will find someone that good too, & hopefully you will find her delightful as well.  

Robin- hope you are still staying cool -we only have AC upstairs.  They say relief is coming...

Oh dear, it is much later than I thought, must start dinner.  Hello to everyone I missed, have a good weekend if I don't get to check in tomorrow.  Cheers-A

[Rknees4]

Well A, I don't think surgeon is 100% sure what is going on so he is on an expedition so hopefully he can fix the problem and take out existing hardware.It is arthroscopic surgery with 2 little nip tucks to get out the hardware of both knees. But who knows what kind of mess he will find in there it is hard to say..

As for kitties and cool air would love to send you some of both!!
Rk4

It is now stupid O'clock and kind of expect the gang across the pond to be rubbing the sleep from their eyes and greeting the day with coffee a stretch and some KG time.
I guess you are all still sleeping which is probably a good thing..
The knee is very unhappy at the moment, waiting on round 2 of pain meds to start to work.
Well a good day to all.
Rk4

[Brambledog]

Ah, lol Rk4, not quite (it's nearly 9.45 am here!) but not far off - I'm shattered this morning!

Rk4 - glad you are all cleared for surgery and good to hear you a bit more upbeat now you know they are finally going to address that dreadful pain.... I will have all fingers and toes crossed for you. Hope you get some sleep in before the surgery 

W - Don't be fooled by the good spell! You're naturally an optimistic person and I can understand you hoping this means something, but sadly it's more than likely a good blip on the knee radar - they do it on purpose to mess with your head. Roll on Vancouver and marshmallows and sun... Fingers crossed for your surgery too. May the surgeons all have had their weetabix in the morning!

A - grrr at your Silly Surgeon. Mine used to get out his trump card of the steroid injection every now and then, I'm sure just to send me away. Another surgeon there that I see now said last time that he wouldn't advise it as they mess up the tissues in the knee. He said when they cut into a knee they can tell if it's had steroid injections as there is calcification. Eek! I had one done a while ago, and like you it did nothing for me except flare things up for a few days... They give with one hand and take with the other! Phew, I'm glad about the dog factor thing. I used to be edging on the crazy cat lady (if not there, I had 2 chickens and I'm sure they add to the crazy factor, lol), but now after Zorroh and Joshua have died (bless their furry toes) I'm down to the one cat, one dog, one chicken. Maybe we could cross a river in a boat with a sack of corn?

Tez - ah the dieting weight conundrum.... I'm with you all there. I couldn't do the carbs thing, tried it once for two days and I would by then have cheerfully stabbed someone. As A says, I don't think cutting out a whole food group is a good idea - must put your body into shock mode? A healthy balance in all groups, as my old HE teacher used to drone on.... I have put on about 25 lb as well since this started. I've been really watching my sugar intake and reduced it right down. That seems to have stopped the trend a bit and I lost a couple of pounds over the last two weeks. If that keeps going I'll be happy! If we start a weight loss groupette then I'm in.

Lottie - I am looking forward to next week, let's just hope this awful weather lets up and we get a touch of sun! Although there will most definitely NOT be any sun-bathing. Lol. Hope Reggie is happily quiet when you read this. As I type this Len and the foot of doom are scratchy and painful...ow.

Robin, Nick and everyone else, hope thenknees behave today and you are happy little frogs in the real world.

Well gang, I have my first course on the relaxation, meditation and pain soothing stuff today. I'm not much of a one for little bells, chants, robes, scented smoke and holding hands... But the mind is a powerful thing, and I'm prepared to give it a go. I need to learn to relax more. If I sit down for a while, I'm always doing something and fretting that I should be doing something more useful!!!

Take care and hugs to all,

Brams 

[emergRN]

Boy RK4...Stupid o'clock hit ON early last night!  8pm...lol!!!

I can't find anything that I am looking for.  I must have stashed stuff in my sleep.  I can't find my ear buds for my iPhone!  I haven't seen my black bathing that I last wore in Vancouver anywhere.  I know it was here, but the house elves have taken that as well.  Ugh!  Must find ear buds!!!  The ones you buy on the plane are too big for my ears, and I will end up with sore ears.

Well, today is big laundry day, and the knee isn't as good as it was yesterday.  I just got up, so that might change!

Brams...enjoy your course!  It sounds quite Zen! 

Not much to say YET today!  I must go get this show on the road!!

W

[Lottiefox]

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[emergRN]

hahahaha....Lottie...you funny!!!

[Brambledog]

 

* ting *

 

[Brambledog]

Hello gangette,

Thought I would give you an account of my first dose of the Mindfulness course.... You have been warned.

Of course first of all I had to drive 12 miles to get to the course, and I was already struggling to concentrate, what with the tiredness today! By the time the course was over i was exhausted and the knee horrible painful and stiff. I sat outside in the car afterwards and absolutely dreaded the drive back....and it's only 12 miles!! What a wuss.
The course itself was a bit odd and not helped by the fact that I missed last week (the first week) due to my horrible cold. So I felt a bit as though sidling into a private club and not knowing anyone! I coped admirably of course, lol...

We started with a ten minute meditation that they'd all learnt last week.  It was quite absorbing, but asking you to be aware of your pain and where it is, how it feels etc just seemed to switch everything on, and I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling awful with my leg burning from bum and thigh down calf and foot and toes. Fun. Not.  Apparently everyone had this last week (...) with it, and it's quite normal and does fade off and improve with practice.... I have to meditate every day of the course and keep a record of how it goes, and there's a set of exercises as well (whose name I've forgotten). After the meditation we all got into two groups and had a chat about how the weeks meditation had gone. Sigh. I joined in where possible, but couldn't help feeling a bit of a spare part! They were a nice enough bunch, but one woman obviously had some issues, had done the course before, but 'had' to do it again, and was very chatty and a bit of a born again convert. One of the women running the course just loved it, and kept asking her to repeat some viewpoint she had already said three times. I could cheerfully have stabbed her. The other course leader was much nicer - shame she's not there next week! One of the weeks we have to do a full day of exercises and chat etc. OMG.

They then started a bit of a general presentation on the topic of pain, how it becomes a cyclical thing, and how it affects your moods, thoughts and emotions. We were all chiming in and having a bit of a grouse here and there. Then this one girl started to hijack the session a bit by challenging the idea that we could stop fighting the pain and embrace it and regard it as just another part of our life. Well. I had to agree with some of what she was saying, so I chimed in as well and we ended up with everyone enthusiastically chatting about your partner's attitude  to your pain, the thorny subject of sex, and the loss of the feeling of being a woman that you get from no high heels, can't wear some of the clothes you used to, putting on weight or losing too much of it, etc. it was very liberating and nice to feel one of many rather than the lone weirdo!!

The organiser didn't like it much, but everyone was so enthusiastic! She said afterwards that it did sometimes happen around the second or third week, bit that we would see the benefits if we kept going. Rome wasn't burnt in a day and s**t like that. Lol.

But all the driving has wrecked my leg, and Len is now red and burning and awful, and I hate him, as per the list of things we must try to resist doing and thinking.

  So I'm feeling a bit horrible and grim right now, and not inclined to meditate. I'll give it a go tomorrow though, like the good girl with an open attitude that I am. Ha ha. Seriously, I can see how it could help with the time to relax thing, and switching off from the worries and stresses for a while, but I can't see it stopping this pain. I'll be dashed impressed if it can though!

Hugs to everyone, and apologies for having a wee moan.

Brams 

[Lottiefox]

Brams...Lottie's key to relaxation...

[Brambledog]

* Cheers! * 
......
 

Brams